9 Simple Tricks To Live Greener And Save Money

A lot of people think that living an eco-friendly lifestyle means buying expensive Lululemon yoga pants and spending half of your paycheck at upscale, organic grocery stores.

In reality, living a greener lifestyle can actually save you money, and, no, you don’t have to grow your hair out or stop showering.

Living greener forces you to think about how your decisions impact the environment, which sometimes helps you cut unnecessary products or energy use out of your life. Here are nine simple tricks to help you live greener and save money.

1. Reuse Plastic And Glass Containers For Storage

Instead of buying Tupperware, just save all of your plastic and glass containers. This can mean reusable containers that take-out food comes in, old spaghetti sauce jars, butter containers, or peanut butter jars.

According to XO Jane, some stores are even starting to refill customers’ old containers for certain products. Apparently the trend is very new, so be on the lookout for it.

2. Buy A Reusable Water Bottle

Switching from bottled water to a reusable bottle with tap water (or even filtered water, if you buy a filtered water pitcher) could save you around $550 a year, according to a blogger at Wild Mint Shop.

If a family of four switched to reusable bottles from plastic bottles of water, it would save up to 27 gallons of oil a year. Just one of those four people switching to a reusable bottle would keep 2,580 balloon-sized containers of carbon dioxide out of the air each year.

3. Carpool When Possible

4. Eat Out Less

Eating out at restaurants is a nice treat, but cooking for yourself more will help you think greener and could save you thousands. Not to mention, when you’re purchasing your own produce or meat, you can more easily guarantee that it came from a reliable source, such as a small, family-owned farm.

Good Housekeeping described cutting your restaurant budget as “a gateway drug” to living greener. Cooking at home forces you to think about how your food was grown and the conditions that workers might be under on the farm where it was grown — things you might not think about when you’re out ordering a huge steak at a four-star restaurant.

6. Install A Low-Flow Shower Head

Low-flow shower heads help you use 25 to 60 percent less water in the shower, according to Greatist, which will help you save big on your water bill.

If you’re worried about the water pressure being too light, then just adjust the shower head to a lower setting when you’re not rinsing, and turn it up for the minute or two that it takes you to wash soap out of your hair.